Bow High School


Bow High School is a four-year public high school in Bow, New Hampshire, United States, and is part of the Bow School District. The principal is Brian O'Connell.
As of the 2016-17 school year, the school had an enrollment of 625 students and 53.0 classroom teachers, for a student-teacher ratio of 12.1.

History

Bow High School was established in 1997, serving grades 9 through 12. Before this time high school students from Bow went to Concord. In 1993 the Concord School District told Bow they could no longer send Bow students to Concord High after the 1996-1997 school year. Immediately Bow started to make plans for a high school of their own. The school was built and now sits on the shores of Turee Pond. The school was originally designed to accommodate 600 students, and in 2005/2006 had a student population of 640. The school cost $16 million. Beginning in the fall of 2014, the school began serving students from the neighboring town of Dunbarton.
The school has a 600-seat auditorium, an 800-seat gym, a video production facility and state of the art technology.

Academics

Classes

Classes at Bow High School are leveled in a heterogeneous manner. Each student at BHS is required to take two science classes, which is fulfilled through a mandatory Integrated Science and Technology class freshman and sophomore year, although the majority of students take more than that. Students are required to graduate with two and a half Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow classes. Students are also required to take a freshmen Humanities class, a sophomore American studies class, a junior World Studies class, and seniors are required to take Senior Seminar, a class that directs them through their senior project. The school offers many different elective classes, such as art, music, STEM, and physical education.
Recently, Bow High School revamped its schedule adding in a 40 minute study period called "flex time." The start time of the school day has been pushed back on certain days of the week as well.

Graduation credit requirements

Graduation requirements for Classes 2007-2010:
Mike Desilets is Bow School District's Athletic Administrator. As of 2007, Bow had won 25 state championships.
The athletic teams participate in NHIAA Division II and Division III. The following sports are represented: soccer, golf, field hockey, football, cross country, alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, indoor track, spirit, swimming, lacrosse, tennis, softball, baseball, and track and field.

Extracurricular activities

Student Teal Van Dyck won second place in the national Poetry Out Loud in 2006, earning a $10,000 scholarship. Van Dyck was also selected to be one of Bow High School's Granite State Challenge competitors on New Hampshire's PBS station, NHPTV.
The school was the scene of a set piece speech by Bill Clinton on January 8, 2008 in support of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

Controversies

In 2005 there was controversy when the Bow High School administration told a student, Isabel Gottlieb, that she would not graduate for not satisfying the state's physical education requirement. The student did not want to take the minimum state requirements of Physical Education, and opted for study hall instead. The situation was resolved when her previous high school issued her a new transcript, awarding her credit for participation in varsity athletics.
In June 2005 the student population, with the exception of the senior class, took place in a school mandated DHHS survey. 17% of surveyed students reported smoking marijuana during a 30-day period and 31% reported consuming alcohol during the same period. The results were below the state average for student substance abuse and the school principal did not consider the results sufficient to necessitate drug testing of student athletes.